BAREILLY, India - Oct. 25, 2017 - PRLog -- Mrida Group, a social business venture that seeks to build sustainable and scalable, financially viable business models aimed at holistic rural development, is very happy to announce the inauguration of upgraded facilities and infrastructure for Gayatri Devi Junior High School at Village & Post Gaini, TahsilAonla, District. The school was identified by Mrida for development of infrastructure and related facilities as a part of its holistic rural development initiatives.

In order to undertake the development, Mrida joined hands with a clutch of entrepreneur investors, corporates and an education focused not-for-profit organization to help fulfil the needs for providing quality education to the children studying at the school.

Shri. Dharam Pal Singh, Cabinet Minister in the UP Govt. and the MLA from Aonla constituency, was the Chief Guest, and the District Magistrate Bareilly District Shri. R.V Singh, and several other senior Govt. officials were also present. Shri Dharam Pal Singh Ji said that with the advancement of Rural India, the whole country will prosper. He also said that any efforts made for furthering the cause of education in the villages are to be praised".

Gayatri Devi Junior High School was set up in 2006 by a retired Government school teacher, Shri. Ashok Bisaria. Starting with about 30 students then,9 teachers today teach 500+ students from NC to Class X. The school currently operates in different shifts to accommodate all the students. More than 50% of these children belong to underprivileged categories and can't pay any fees while the rest pay around Rs. 1,000 each year. Shri Bisaria and 5 of his family members are dedicated to running the school – from teaching to administration – just to provide the children with high quality education; without their help, these children would have been denied this opportunity.

The partners and funders engaged with Mrida in this development journey included :

• Anuradha& BV Jagadeesh: BV Jagadeesh is a serial entrepreneur based out of Bay Area, USA, and currently the Managing Partner at KAAJ Ventures. He and his wife work closely for the cause of education. Between them, they are actively involved in education and initiatives to help uplift lives across the USA and India, and are on the board of several not-for-profits in both countries, such as Akshaya Patra, One School At A Time (OSAAT), UVCE Foundation, Overseas Volunteers For Better India (OVBI) etc.

• Kalpana&MohitAron: Mohit, earlier a lead developer at Google, is a recognized tech-preneur from Silicon Valley, who co-founded Nutanix in 2009 and founded Cohesity, one of the well known and fast growing start-ups in the Silicon Valley, in 2013. Mohit has contributed to the school in memory of his father Anil Kumar Aron who was born in Bareilly

• VDA InfosolutionsPvt Ltd, Pune: An IT solutions company focused on IT Infrastructure and Data Centers, capacity planning, performance management, IS audits, & complex system Integration.

• One School At A Time(OSAAT) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping rebuild infrastructure of underprivileged, rural schools in India, and build a strong, safe and healthy learning environment for children in rural India. OSAAT provided infrastructural and overall project management support for this Project, which included 6 properly designed and constructed new classrooms, suitable repairs for existing infrastructure and classrooms, and provision of toilet facilities.

• Eternity Architects, a firm of reputed Delhi based architects, provided the design for the building and supervision of the construction to exacting quality standards, including innovations in the overall layout of the building itself, and the surroundings.

This project represents a unique combination of individuals, organizations, professional and social entrepreneurs coming together to provide a strong foundation for the children of Gaini and surrounding areas.

"When Mrida was introduced to Mr. Bisaria's school, we were impressed by the selfless dedication of the handful of people who were committed to providing good quality education to deserving rural students. We saw that the lack of infrastructure did not deter the students from learning, and this ardor of the teachers and students alike compelled us to look at how to better the infrastructure. Investors/donors, Mrida and OSAAT worked very closely together to ensure that basic infrastructure needs of the school were taken care of so that the school could focus on imparting quality education, and not give in to the vagaries of nature", says Mr. Arun Nagpal, Co-founder and Managing Director, Mrida.

The investors could easily relate to the issues since BV Jagadeesh himself came from a small village in Karnataka and studied in village schools. Mohit Aaron's father was born in Bareilly and he also decided to contribute to provide a positive environment and solid foundation for the children, in memory of his father. Both strongly believe in providing fair opportunities to students who are willing to work hard& smart and come up in life, and are convinced that providing basic school infrastructure to such students is the starting point.

"We are very excited to be part of this journey to provide the infrastructure for the Gayatri Devi School at Gaini, and we hope that the teachers and the children would get maximum benefits out of this and do well in life", say Anuradha& BV Jagadeesh.

"OSAAT is extremely proud to present a brand new building to very deserving children of Gaini for their safe learning. Gayatri Devi school will be a model school for north India for OSAAT and we plan to continue our endeavour in building more schools in the years to come" says Vadiraja Bhatt, Managing Trustee, OSAAT (India).